


Strange Truths

by inabsurd



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Cooking Lessons, F/F, Kissing, Mutual Pining, Obliviously in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28985328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inabsurd/pseuds/inabsurd
Summary: In which Alisha learns more than how to make crepes during her cooking lessons with Rose.
Relationships: Alisha Diphda/Rose
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Strange Truths

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilentShanin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentShanin/gifts).



> thank you SilentShanin for commissioning me I had SO MUCH FUN working on it. you were an absolute delight and a big help when it came to game details that slipped my mind which I really appreciate
> 
> the prompt was pretty open-ended, she just wanted a get-together type fic so, of course, I had to use two of the funniest Rose and Alisha skits in the game as inspiration, Something Wrong With This Picture and Chilled Luxuries.

Sorey hadn’t told her that they would be stopping by Ladylake again. He sends letters when he can, although Alisha can never send any in turn because he moves around so much. The last time he visited, he had given her a few days' notice and they had made sure that they had a meeting place arranged. With no letter, though, Alisha can only assume this was a rather spur-of-the-moment decision, or his new Squire is travelling on her own for the moment.

“Rose?”

The other girl jumps, banging her head on the market-stall where she had been intently studying the prices on various fruits.

They make eye-contact, and Rose’s cheeks turn bright red, “Princess Alisha? I didn’t expect to bump into you here.”

Alisha smiles, “I could say the same for you. Sorey didn’t say you would be coming here.”

“That guy,” the merchant rolls her eyes, “He can be so forgetful sometimes. We aren’t staying long, though, we’re just here to resupply.”

“Oh, I see.” Something tight forms in Alisha’s chest, but, whatever it is, it must be plain as day to Rose, whose smile softens just so.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Between you and me, I think everyone’s pretty beat. I believe Mikleo was trying to convince Sorey to rent a room for the night, anyway.”

“That’s good,” Alisha’s smile is back just as quickly as it disappeared. She wonders how Rose can affect her so quickly, and then wonders why she's wondering it in the first place. It's just the way Rose is, after all. "Mind if I accompany you back to the others? I do miss everyone, and Mikleo promised me some cooking lessons he has yet to follow through on."

"Be my guest," the merchant does a little half-bow, an action that lands somewhere between endearingly funny and obnoxiously cute. "I think everyone's kinda doing their own thing, though. You can stick with me until the meet-up time if you want?" Rose smiles, eyes wide and hopeful. "We can buy ingredients for your cooking lessons!"

An insistent fluttering starts up in her chest. "That sounds perfect."

_Absolutely perfect._

Rose's lips turn up at the corners, just so. It's the only warning Alisha receives before the other girl is pressed tight to her side, their linked arms holding them firmly together.

Distantly, the idea that _this_ is what is truly perfect pops into her head. The idea feels so natural in her own mind that Alisha hardly notices it, too busy basking in Rose's warmth like she is meant to be there. The knight's face flushes, but she can hardly bring herself to care as she is drug through the market, Rose commenting here and there on goods and prices and “Oh, we should make crepes tonight! I know it's a breakfast thing, but—”

"You'll have to teach me how," Alisha says seriously, "Mikleo can only make cold treats, and I’m afraid I don’t have much experience in the kitchen."

Rose lights up, "Yeah, I can teach you! You'll have more fun with me anyway. Unlike Mikleo, I can make cooking fun _and_ efficient.”

“Fun and efficient,” she smiles, “You really know how to make a sale, don’t you?”

“Nah,” Rose laughs, “I just know my audience.”

Delight sparks under Alisha’s armour, fizzling close to her heart like the bubbling champagne she has to drink at royal parties. Of course, Alisha hasn’t been drinking and doesn’t make a habit of drinking any more than is polite, but being this close to Rose feels intoxicating and light and _fun_ where everything about Alisha’s life has always been grounded in reality and duty. Rose is something special, of that, there is no doubt.

They continue their walk, picking up more ingredients now that they know what they will be cooking, including some extra in case Alisha does end up taking up Mikleo on his earlier offer. Secretly, though, she thinks she would rather spend more time perfecting the crepes.

The rest of the group is waiting for them in the town square about an hour later, and they greet Alisha with their own types of enthusiasm.

“Mind if we camp outside, tonight?” Rose asks. She no longer hangs from Alisha’s side, but she hasn’t strayed far either. “Dinner’s on me and Alisha, and innkeepers don’t really like it when I try to borrow their kitchens.”

“Wait, have you _done that before?”_ Mikleo asks, wide-eyed.

The woman waves an arm dismissively, “Not here, but still.”

“We could always use my quarters,” Alisha offers, “I’m sure the kitchen staff wouldn’t mind, and there are plenty of spare rooms at my manor.”

Zaveid grins in that way that comes off vaguely lecherous and largely teasing, “A lady inviting me to her personal chambers? It would be rude to decline.”

That seems to settle the matter. Alisha and Rose take the lead as they step onto the winding road towards the Diphda estate. Despite having spent the previous hour together already, her company has yet to wear on her, and she finds herself looking forward to a whole evening in the other girl’s company. Alisha supposes, somewhat distantly, that she should take this opportunity to catch up with her other friends—Sorey in particular in case something in his plans has changed or he has new information that could be useful to her when negotiating with the Rolace Empire—but it can wait, just for now.

The manor is as empty as always, but it’s almost hard to remember that feeling as she enters with humans and Seraphs alike trailing behind her, and their chatter and banter and joy fill Alisha in a way she hadn’t even known to miss.

Beside her, she catches Rose staring in her direction.

“Is something wrong?” Alisha asks. Rose looks...dazed, she supposes is the best word for it. Like she was somewhere far off, just now, and Alisha has shocked her back to the present.

Rose grins. It’s not her usual grin where mischief pulls the corners into hard edges. This is decidedly softer. “Not at all,” she answers. Her eyes stay locked onto Alisha’s own, a tenderness there that the knight can’t say she has seen much of.

_It’s nice,_ there are no doubts about that.

Alisha shows the group to the parlour before anything else and she has the staff bring out drinks for everyone. There, they sit comfortably and catch up on everything they've missed. Edna tells some particularly embarrassing stories to which Lailah interrupts with cringe-inducing puns, Zaveid flirts relentlessly, and Sorey tries to catch Alisha up on their mission but gets sidetracked partway through the retelling to instead share details on some of the ruins they'd explored since she'd been with them.

In turn, Alisha explains how negotiations are going with the Rolace Empire and confesses how she is coping in Maltran's absence.

"It's hard," she says honestly. "Despite knowing the horrible things she's done, when I'm training, I still find myself looking to her for approval."

Rose must decide that that is too sad, too melancholic for a surprise reunion, because she stands to her feet and crosses the room to Alisha's seat in one fluid motion. "Well, you don't need her guidance for cooking, right?" she offers her hand. "So, let's do that!"

Alisha stares at the proffered hand for a beat too long, surely Rose must see it too, but her hand remains open and steadfast; waiting for hers to join it.

She accepts.

Her hand is calloused under Alisha's own and dry from travel, but she still holds on during those extra few steps they take together before letting go.

Behind her, she hears Mikleo ask, "Uh, shouldn't someone supervise them?" Alisha doesn't catch the response, but she does hear a punctured "Oof!" from the Seraph that makes her think someone—Edna, probably—hit him.

“Supervise,” Rose mutters, rolling her eyes fondly, “Honestly, you’d think we’re pyros or something.”

Alisha eyes Rose. “Why aren’t you trusted in the kitchen?” she thinks she knows why Mikleo doesn’t want to leave her to her own devices; she’s really only tried cooking with him that one time and it went fine until she started cutting fruit.

“Eh, nothin’ bad, honestly. They’re just a bunch of babies,” she laughs. “I think you’ll be fine, though.”

Well. “I trust your judgement,” Alisha says seriously. It’s not an exaggeration in the slightest.

“Good,” Rose has a self-satisfied smile on her face, one that the knight is surprised to note she doesn’t mind. Smug is a good look for her, that’s all there is to it.

She smiles back at her, but the action is quickly overshadowed by their arrival in the kitchen. It’s a large kitchen, Alisha knows, but it never really hit her exactly _how_ large until she watches Rose’s jaw drop. “Holy…”

“I…” she shakes her head to dispel the image of Rose’s eyes, lit up in awe, “I hope this will make cooking easier than using a campfire and artes.”

“Or the kitchen of unsuspecting innkeepers,” she adds. “Oh, this is going to be a blast!” Rose rushes out of the room then, back towards the parlour. From down the hall, she yells, “I forgot the ingredients, one sec!”

A fond smile overtakes Alishia’s lips and lingers as she begins pulling out pans and cutting boards for them. It takes her a bit of searching as she doesn’t use the kitchen frequently, but she has a general idea and manages. By the time Rose returns, arms over-piled with ingredients from the market, Alisha has everything set out.

“Here, let me take some.” Alisha steps in to take over some of the burden but the other just waves her off—the fact that she has a free hand to wave her off with is...incredible, to put it mildly.

Rose balances their bags of ingredients with expert precision, carefully maneuvering them from where they line all the way up her arms to down onto the countertop. With her free hand, she then grabs the final bag that was resting between her shoulder and head and plops it down unceremoniously to join the rest. “There. Easy,” she grins in that self-assured way.

Alisha blinks. “You have a very wide range of skills,” she notes, shocked and awed all at once.

“Years of training,” she teases.

The groceries are unbagged quickly, ingredients sprawling across the countertop in lazy lines. It looks like a mess to Alisha, who really has no idea what to do with any of it. “Where do we begin?”

Rose rolls up her sleeves, alight in a way Alisha has only seen in battle. “Well, we have to mix the batter first. Mind cracking a couple eggs?” She slides one of Alisha’s gathered bowls her way.

“Oh, of course,” the knight glances hesitantly towards the eggs. It can’t be that hard, surely. She reaches for an egg, tapping it lightly on the edge of her bowl.

Nothing.

She taps harder, and perhaps over-corrects because the egg ends up wedged onto the side of the bowl like a lime on glass.

Beside her, Rose laughs. “First time baking, right, sorry,” she grins, “I didn’t mean to laugh.”

“No, that—it’s fine,” the egg drips onto the counter, “It _is_ rather funny.”

“Well, no judgement. Just do your best. If we get shells in them, well, we’ll just make sure Zaveid gets that one,” she says with a wink.

Alisha smiles, “I’ll try to spare him if I can.” She wipes away the mess, although Rose is rather insistent that they just save all the clean-up until the end, and cracks another.

It goes...better, this time, although she ends up fishing a shell out anyway. By the time she’s done with that, Rose passes her another bowl, filled about halfway with what are presumably the other batter ingredients. She flushes but adds her eggs in with the rest.

Wordlessly, Rose then hands over a whisk. Batter is smeared across her fingers, and Alisha stares for an embarrassing amount of time before finally accepting the item.

She’s been doing that a lot today, Alisha realizes, falling into a daze out of nowhere. It’s not like her, and yet today alone it has become suspiciously constant. She wonders if Rose notices it too, or if Alisha is just a little too in her own head.

She mixes the batter until it runs smooth, and then a little bit longer so she can get her heartbeat under control. It’s not much use. When she finally thinks it has calmed down, she turns to Rose for guidance, only to find herself right back where she started.

Alisha does her best to work through it.

“Now, we just have to cook it, and then fill ‘em with fruit and stuff!”

“I think I’ll leave the cooking to you,” she smiles, “I know how to cut things, at least.” That time with Mikleo notwithstanding, of course, but if the merchant trusts her, then she’ll just do her best. Besides, Rose has already made it clear that the Seraph’s cooking opinions don’t matter to her.

Rose shrugs, “Sure, be my guest.” She heads over to the woodstove to inspect the flames underneath. It must not be hot enough—although Alisha feels plenty flushed herself—because the other girl tosses a few more logs on before getting started.

Alisha moves onto her own tasks. She washes the various fruits they bought, eyes trailing over towards Rose every few seconds as she goes through the motions. She seems to be having her own trouble cooking the batter which makes the princess feel better about the egg mess.

Fruits washed, Alisha grabs her spear.

There’s an almost-tension that fills the air the moment she does, and Alisha feels more than sees Rose’s attention shift towards her; the other’s sole focus for the moment.

The familiar weight of the spear in her hands soothes her, though, in a way that nothing else really can, and Rose’s interest feels less invasive. Alisha feels calm, collected, and more present than she has since running into the merchant this afternoon. There is a clarity to her thoughts now, one that allows her to begin connecting dots within her mind that she’s been oblivious to all day: the racing heartbeat, the blushing, the staring, the light, happy feeling that fills her when Rose looks at her, touches her, jokes with her…

_I’m in love with her._

The realization isn’t sudden so much as it is integral _._ All day, Alisha has been experiencing things outside of her norm, and the only way she can understand those moments is by understanding this feeling.

How long Alisha has been feeling this, she’s not certain, but this seems like a natural progression to all their time spent together. Or, recently, the lack thereof, but she has heard that distance makes the heart grow fonder; she thinks this could be exactly her situation.

Longing. What a strange position she’s found herself in.

She cuts the fruit, coming back to herself and the task at hand within only a moment of her realization. She strikes true, it’s difficult to miss a still target, but still, she hears Rose’s breath catch behind her.

Alisha turns, intending to say she’s not sure what, but the sight of Rose’s lazy smile pulls the thoughts from her mind entirely. 

“So _that’s_ why Mikleo thought we should be supervised.” 

Rose crosses the room in an instant, standing close enough that Alisha has to press into the counter to try to salvage whatever distance she can. The other girl seems unbothered, and before the princess can even begin to wonder why that might be, Rose’s lips are on hers. The feeling doesn’t register all at once, but rather in increments. She feels hot breath against her face and smells Rose’s shampoo, something fresh and subtly floral, long before she feels the pressure of lips on hers, as though the feeling had to travel a great distance to meet her. Once it does, though, Alisha can do nothing but bask in the elation and chase after it with a fervor she has never experienced.

She surges forwards to match Rose, both in enthusiasm and energy. The merchant has always had an infectious personality, but this goes beyond that, as though there is a direct transfer through every point of contact. If Alisha thought simply spending time with Rose was intoxicating, then she has no word for this. She doesn’t need a word, though, content simply in knowing that, what she feels for her, Rose feels in return.

Some part of Alisha, the naive part, assumes that with her feelings affirmed, something new will replace the longing. Nothing does, and when they part, she wants nothing more than to rewind time and kiss a little while longer.

Rose laughs, breath ruffling Alisha’s bangs and tickling her face.

“So, I—” she has no idea what she’s saying. Laughter of her own overtakes her, and she kisses Rose again. It’s a moments press of skin on skin, and nowhere near as coordinated as their first, but Alisha doesn’t like this one any less than its predecessor.

What was it she thought earlier? Absolutely perfect? Looking into Rose’s eyes that dance with mirth and relief and everything in between, it feels more fitting than ever. Alisha feels at home in that gaze. Hindsight, they say, is far clearer than anything the eyes can see in the moment and that certainly holds true here; now that she looks back to see it, there has always been a place for her in Rose’s eyes.

They’re probably a strange couple; a merchant and a princess, an assassin and a knight, two Squires to the same Shepherd. By all rights, they shouldn’t have met, let alone fallen for each other. It’s a strange truth, to be certain, but truth is something Alisha has never run from.

And there is nothing about this truth that makes her want to, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! you can follow me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/inabsurd) or [Tumblr](https://inabsurd.tumblr.com/) for fic updates and shenanigans


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